I think that we’re having conversations we would have no hope of ever having without the Trump in the deck. I also say that the media will finally crush his presidential run long before the primaries — there is no way the media is going to let someone like Trump be on a ticket.

Like this:

I read The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat, again. It’s still great. Below you will find a few quotes. The really hard part is picking which passages to quote — the whole (short) book is entirely quotable. It’s short. It’s sweet. It’s practical. It’s brilliant.

Love does not steal from one’s neighbors to enrich oneself.

This plunder may be only an exceptional blemish in the legislation of a people, and in this case, the best thing that can be done is, without so many speeches and lamentations, to do away with it as soon as possible, notwithstanding the clamors of interested parties. But how is it to be distinguished? Very easily. See whether the law takes from some persons that which belongs to them, to give to others what does not belong to them. See whether the law performs, for the profit of one citizen, and, to the injury of others, an act which this citizen cannot per- form without committing a crime. Abolish this law without delay; it is not merely an iniquity — it is a fertile source of iniquities, for it invites reprisals; and if you do not take care, the exceptional case will extend, multiply, and become system- atic. No doubt the party benefited will exclaim loudly; he will assert his acquired rights. He will say that the State is bound to protect and encourage his industry; he will plead that it is a good thing for the State to be enriched, that it may spend the more, and thus shower down salaries upon the poor workmen. Take care not to listen to this sophistry, for it is just by the systematizing of these arguments that legal plunder becomes systematized.
– Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

Like this:

When President Obama attempted to silence Major Garrett, Chief White House Correspondent with CBS News, earlier this week by carefully not answering his question, he demonstrated how to use political correctness to shame and silence those it wishes to crush and destroy. Whom does this tyrannical president wish to crush? Mostly, those who wish to think for themselves.

I have seen Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” referenced many times through the years, and I’ve seen quotes pulled from it often. I finally decided to read it. I’m glad that I did. I think anyone interested in taking a stand against immoral laws should start with this letter.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

Thanks to the trampling of history happening in South Carolina with the lightless heat over the Confederate Battle Flag, I have read and thought more about the War of 1861/War of Northern Aggression/War Between the States, often mislabeled the American “Civil War,” than ever before in my life.

The victors of war write its history in order to cast themselves in the most favorable light. That explains the considerable historical ignorance about our war of 1861 and panic over the Confederate flag. To create better understanding, we have to start a bit before the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton has won the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers. It’s the first major labor union to make an endorsement in the 2016 presidential campaign.

The president of the union, Randi Weingarten, says in a statement Saturday that Clinton is the “champion working families need in the White House.”

Liars who endorse liars. Nice. Birds of a feather need to stick together.

Teachers unions are about power and money – never about education. Power like that can only come through state enforced monopoly. Monopoly is what teachers unions need Democratic Socialists like Hillary Clinton for.

Like this:

The problem with nationalizing healthcare (the Affordable Healthcare Act aka “Obamacare”) is that it doesn’t solve the problems we are told it is supposed to solve — it just makes them worse! Government intervention brakes healthcare. More government intervention is only going to keep making everything worse.